TXT files can be in any character encoding. Some OS's may put some code at the front of the TXT file to indicate a known character set, ie if you save a txt file using notepad in windows as UTF-8, and then dump the raw file you will see these flags. These flags are not required to save UTF-8 data into a file, just tell the OS that the file is UTF-8.

Of course with all that said is it pointless as it seems that either the raw text sent to the Tivo does not accept UTF-8, or not 7 bit ASCII, or breaks. What I wonder is if through the HTML interface you can tell the Tivo to expect UTF-8 and then send non-7 bit ASCII characters? I am not in front of my Tivos at the moment or I would test this, but if someone wants to beat me to the punch..

Switch your XSLT file to the HTML version and modify the XSLT to include the following line after the <html> tag:

Code:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>

Now include a TXT metadata file with UTF-8 characters and see how the Tivo sees it.

Just something to try, I will give it a whirl later this weekend when I get a chance.

Apologies for the lame question team, believe it or not, TIVO is new to Australia and being distributed by a third party. Its a struggle, but they dont even know what a MAK is so its hard to say when we will get the desktop software.

My question is this, I understand you need a MAK for pytivo, do you need one for streambaby?

You do NOT need a MAK for pyTivo. If you have one, you can use it, for the extraction functions. Everything else works without it. (But whether pyTivo will work in general on Australian TiVos, I can't say.)

Streambaby has no use for a MAK AFAIK.

Even if your distributor doesn't know what a MAK is, you could have one. Look under Messages & Settings, Account & System Information, Media Access Key (if that menu is there).

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Switch your XSLT file to the HTML version and modify the XSLT to include the following line after the <html> tag:

Code:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>

Now include a TXT metadata file with UTF-8 characters and see how the Tivo sees it.

No luck, both the text XSL and the HTML file with the character-set as UTF-8 do not work correctly. I have the TXT file saved as UTF-8 and some UTF-8 data and it shows up garbled in the metadata screens.

So either the Tivo is ignoring the double byte data, or we need to specify the character set in some form, or StreamBaby is loading the data incorrectly.

Keary just want to confirm that app works great both on mac and windows streaming is also good ( better than anything out there)

only thing is that when i set passwords to specific directories they do not show up at all !!!!!!!!!! and tivo remembers passwords even though I configured everything according to direction in .ini file

and one more request if you could add time to info so when we press info time is also displayed

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No luck, both the text XSL and the HTML file with the character-set as UTF-8 do not work correctly. I have the TXT file saved as UTF-8 and some UTF-8 data and it shows up garbled in the metadata screens.

So either the Tivo is ignoring the double byte data, or we need to specify the character set in some form, or StreamBaby is loading the data incorrectly.

Rick

Is it possible to post attach one of the problematic metadata files? The ones I tried with UTF-8 seemed to work OK. (I recorded some shows on Univision with spanish-accented characters that where encoded as multi-byte UTF-8 in the txt file, and everything looked OK.)

only thing is that when i set passwords to specific directories they do not show up at all !!!!!!!!!! and tivo remembers passwords even though I configured everything according to direction in .ini file

1. if a password is set up for specific directories, they will not show up unless the correct password is entered. When entering streambaby if all directories are password protected you will be prompted to enter a password. However, if any of the directories are not password protected, you will not be prompted to enter a password, and will only see the non-password protected directories. Press CLEAR to go to the password screen and enter a password.
2. Setting remember.password=false seems to work for me. When I go into streambaby it asks for a password. If I enter a password I can see the password protected directories. I then back out of streambaby and re-enter and it prompts me for a password again. (Or if I happen to have some non-password protected directories those show up until I press CLEAR and re-enter a password)

So I guess I am going to need a more exact description of what your settings are, what you are expecting to have happen, and what is actually happening.

Edit: make sure you restart streambaby after any INI changes.
Thanks
Keary

Is it possible to post attach one of the problematic metadata files? The ones I tried with UTF-8 seemed to work OK. (I recorded some shows on Univision with spanish-accented characters that where encoded as multi-byte UTF-8 in the txt file, and everything looked OK.)

Accents are in the ISO-8859-1 standard Roman character set. Attached is a TXT file with a Cyrillic "д" in the title. Now this was just for a test, it was actually not in the title, but I wanted to use non-roman characters as the test to see UTF-8 support. (I do Unicode work as part of my main job)

I had to make a change to streambaby to handle the idiotic BOM (sorry, it's just that notepad is the only app I know that insists on a BOM for UTF-8) that notepad sticks into it's UTF-8 files, but other than that the file works "as expected".

"As expected" means:
1) When rendered to HTML (so fonts generated on PC side) everything looks good.
2) When rendering to tivo-text and also on the selection screen, cyrillic A comes out as "empty box". (TiVo doesn't seem to support it, at least not according to the font information it returns to HME applications)

While I was playing I also changed my code to replace the invalid characters with the empty-box symbol like TiVo does (as opposed to stripping it out completely which is what I was doing). Looks better with the placeholder character than just stripped out.

Maybe I know the answer to this already. Does StreamBaby work with the Hr10-250? If not, does anyone know why?

I believe HR10-250 runs a modified version of the series 2 software, so it can't correctly stream mp4, and so streambaby doesn't support it. use pyTivo.

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If someone could take a look for 5, or at least point us in the right direction that would be appreciated.

Everything seems pretty normal until you try to play the video (the warnings about removed resources, not re-initing, and other messages are normal). I really don't know what the particular error you are getting means, but from searching around the 'net it does seem the Aussie TiVos run a somewhat crippled version of the TiVo software. My guess is that the TiVo just doesn't support streaming from HME applications. (But that's all it is, a wild guess)

I've got an interesting problem where x.264 rips of a couple episodes of a television show (Futurama) won't stream through streambaby - I get "ERROR: 0xffff" when I try to play them. Thing is, five episodes were ripped from the DVD at the same time, and three of them stream just fine.

If I use pyTivo to transfer them (which I realize is transcoding them), they play just fine on my Tivo. If I sit at the computer and play them with VLC or Quicktime, they play just fine.

I've switched the log to "debug" mode, but I don't see an obvious explanation regarding why it's not working. Here's the section of the log generated during the attempt to play one video:

I believe HR10-250 runs a modified version of the series 2 software, so it can't correctly stream mp4, and so streambaby doesn't support it. use pyTivo.

The HR10-250 definitely can't do MP4 (it doesn't have the hardware), but you can also stream MPEG-2, which could potentially work on the HR10-250 if it had the right software (which, I don't know).

ISTR that the HR10-250 recently acquired HME (though only if hacked, I think), but lost HMO, which would rule out pyTivo. My own HR10-250 has been in mothballs for a couple of years now, so I don't really know what the scene is like now. You might find better information on that at the database of deals.

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Was running StreamBaby fine. Now I get the 0x50005 connection error. I see StreamBaby under the showcase, but when i go to access it, i get the gray please wait screen. Then after about 5 minutes I get the connection error. The only thing that's changed is I had to put new cable cards in and reboot the TiVo. Thanks..and great application btw.

I've got an interesting problem where x.264 rips of a couple episodes of a television show (Futurama) won't stream through streambaby - I get "ERROR: 0xffff" when I try to play them. Thing is, five episodes were ripped from the DVD at the same time, and three of them stream just fine.

Have you tried using a quality other than 'same'? h.264 encompasses a BUNCH of different options, and its possible the futurama rip is using some option that isn't supported (don't ask me what the tivo supports). Using a different quality causes a re-encoding to mpeg-2 which *should* work if ffmpeg can at least view your futurama episodes.

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Have you tried using a quality other than 'same'? h.264 encompasses a BUNCH of different options, and its possible the futurama rip is using some option that isn't supported (don't ask me what the tivo supports). Using a different quality causes a re-encoding to mpeg-2 which *should* work if ffmpeg can at least view your futurama episodes.

I will try another quality - however these episodes appear to work if I use tivostream instead of streambaby (I've only tested one or two though). I didn't mention that before because I only thought of trying it out just a little bit ago.

Is there a way to tell streambaby to "just do everything exactly like tivostream did"?

Is there a way to tell streambaby to "just do everything exactly like tivostream did"?

No, but you can get close :-)

Try:
mp4module.interleave=false

My guess is that it will fix some of the issue you have, but it also may create other problems (more than likely seeking/rebuffering to a starting point other than the beginning)

I tried to make this the default for a while (don't re-interleave if you are starting at the beginning of an MP4) but had problems with other video files.

Edit: You can also try running MP4Box -isma in.mp4 -out out.mp4 (with an without the interleave setting from above)
(And if you run MP4Box -isma on a file, then setting mp4moule.interleave=false is OK and seeking should work OK)

I am wondering if maybe my problems come because my ripped videos tend to be rather "high profile", if I'm using that term correctly, with more reference frames and the like. If I understand things correctly (no guarantee of that of course!) tivostream basically just sent the video over as is, acting more or less as a dumb relay; while streambaby is rather more active in managing the audio and video portions of the stream - so a high profile video that takes a bit of processor power might cause problems for ffmpeg or whatever. Or am I just blathering like an idiot? As I've said once or twice before, I think I know just enough to be dangerous, and I probably know less than I think I do.

I am wondering if maybe my problems come because my ripped videos tend to be rather "high profile", if I'm using that term correctly, with more reference frames and the like. If I understand things correctly (no guarantee of that of course!) tivostream basically just sent the video over as is, acting more or less as a dumb relay; while streambaby is rather more active in managing the audio and video portions of the stream - so a high profile video that takes a bit of processor power might cause problems for ffmpeg or whatever. Or am I just blathering like an idiot? As I've said once or twice before, I think I know just enough to be dangerous, and I probably know less than I think I do.

I think maybe what you said about encoding in a "higher profile" might be right. Your encodings definitely have B frames which may be causing a problem.

MP4 (like some other formats) has two fields dealing with times. A pts (presentation time) and a dts (decoding time). They only come into play when using B-frames, where sometimes a future frame needs to be decoded before what is going to be the next frame to play. The DTS tells the decoder what time to decode a frame, and the pts tells it when to display the decoded frame. In an MP4 without b-frames (I think, I'm getting dangerously close to talking about things I know little about) DTS and PTS are the same.

My re-interleaving code was sorting the chunks based on the PTS. It's possible that this was incorrect, and the SVN-r95 release that I posted the link to above sorts chunks based on the DTS. It seems to alleviate the green blocky issue with your files, so it may fix your current error: 0xffff issue also.

I think maybe what you said about encoding in a "higher profile" might be right. Your encodings definitely have B frames which may be causing a problem.

MP4 (like some other formats) has two fields dealing with times. A pts (presentation time) and a dts (decoding time). They only come into play when using B-frames, where sometimes a future frame needs to be decoded before what is going to be the next frame to play. The DTS tells the decoder what time to decode a frame, and the pts tells it when to display the decoded frame. In an MP4 without b-frames (I think, I'm getting dangerously close to talking about things I know little about) DTS and PTS are the same.

My re-interleaving code was sorting the chunks based on the PTS. It's possible that this was incorrect, and the SVN-r95 release that I posted the link to above sorts chunks based on the DTS. It seems to alleviate the green blocky issue with your files, so it may fix your current error: 0xffff issue also.

Let me know how it goes.

Hi Keary,

The good news is, like you said - it solved the green blockiness problem. The bad news is, the videos that wouldn't play before still give the same error.

I tried this with and without the "mp4module.interleave=false" setting.

I also tried Yoav's suggestion. If I dial down the quality, then these problem video do play. When I do that, the video quality is pretty darn bad in places unfortunately.

I do appreciate all the help, and apologize for being the source of many problem reports.

Was running StreamBaby fine. Now I get the 0x50005 connection error. I see StreamBaby under the showcase, but when i go to access it, i get the gray please wait screen. Then after about 5 minutes I get the connection error. The only thing that's changed is I had to put new cable cards in and reboot the TiVo. Thanks..and great application btw.

Double check your streambaby.ini file and make sure dir.1 (and possibly additional entries you may have added) are set to appropriate directories.
To generate additional debugging information stop streambaby and edit simplelog.properties and change 1st line to: com.unwiredappeal=debug
Then run streambaby again and connect to it via Tivo to the point of your hang and post contents of streambaby.log here.

Also, does the icon show up next to Stream, Baby, Stream in the music photos and showcases list?

If it doesn't it points to some kind of communication issue.

If it is a communication issue, maybe firewall issues? (When you rebooted the TiVo it could have changed ip addresses and maybe the firewall was only set to allow connections to from the previous address?) Also, in the last few versions of Streambaby the default port changed from port 7288 to 7290 which could cause firewall issues. (Not sure if you changed streambaby versions between time it worked and time it didnt).

1) Streambaby does not seem to read my meta data for a file until I have selected that file past the preliminary preview screen. Is there a way for streambaby to pick up this meta information without me having to first select the file?

2) Someone asked this earlier but I don't think received a response - after streambaby does acknowledge the meta data file, it organizes the information within that folder alphabetically. Is there a way to avoid this - as I want the files to be listed in the order that they aired (pyTivo does this successfully)?

1) Streambaby does not seem to read my meta data for a file until I have selected that file past the preliminary preview screen. Is there a way for streambaby to pick up this meta information without me having to first select the file?

2) Someone asked this earlier but I don't think received a response - after streambaby does acknowledge the meta data file, it organizes the information within that folder alphabetically. Is there a way to avoid this - as I want the files to be listed in the order that they aired (pyTivo does this successfully)?

Thank you for your hard work.

For #1, you have a couple of options. If you press the ENTER key on the selection screen, it will automatically cache all of the metadata for that directory. (And remember it even if you quit/restart streambaby).

The other option is to edit streambaby.ini and add the following line:
use.title.cachedonly=false

This will automatically read all of the metadata when you enter a directory.

For #2, sorting by date, streambaby doesn't currently support sorting by anything other than alphabetical. It will probably end up getting added as a feature at some point, but I am not sure when yet.